ARMENIAN TROOPS HOLD ‘PEACEKEEPING’ DRILLS

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Aug 13th, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-Hundreds of Armenian troops began on Wednesday
one-week military exercises which officials said are aimed at
testing and improving their ability to participate in international
peacekeeping operations.

Among the 900 or so participants are not only members of a special
peacekeeping brigade of Armenia’s Armed Forces but also army
commandos backed by helicopter gunships. They are simulating military
intervention in clashes between hostile civilian populations in an
imaginary conflict zone.

The scenario of the exercises, conducted at the Marshal Bagramian
military training ground 40 kilometers west of Yerevan, also involves
the setting up of a security "buffer zone" and checkpoints. Defense
Minister Seyran Ohanian was present at the opening of the drills,
the first of their kind ever held in Armenia, along with top army
generals and foreign monitors, including from NATO member states.

."Such war games are aimed at developing our peacekeepers’ practical
skills," Colonel Artur Stepanian, commander of the brigade, was
quoted by Armenian Public Radio as saying. "Their capabilities,
knowledge and potential are being tested in practice."

Stepanian said that is necessary for Armenia’s continued participation
in Western-led peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and other "hot
spots." Yerevan doubled the number of Armenian soldiers serving in
Kosovo to 70 before withdrawing its similarly small military contingent
from Iraq last year.

It is also expected to send troops to Afghanistan in the months
ahead. The Associated Press news agency quoted unnamed officials in
Yerevan as saying last month that they will comprise munitions experts
and communication officers and serve there under German command.

The Armenian peacekeeping unit was set up in 2001 with financial and
technical assistance provided by the United States and other NATO
member states. The U.S. military alone has supplied it with at least
$6 million worth of equipment.

The volunteer unit currently consists of two battalions, one of them
formed in 2008. It is due to become a full-fledged army brigade by
2015 in accordance with Armenia’s Individual Partnership Action Plan
with NATO.